Jin Akutsu
Jin Akutsu (亜久津仁 Akutsu Jin) is a player from Yamabuki Junior High. Background Although his rigid posture may suggest otherwise, Akutsu is a natural at tennis, never having to practice to reach his current level. His greatest asset is the ability to change his movements instantaneously. Unfortunately for Yamabuki, Akutsu quit his school tennis club following his defeat to Echizen Ryoma because he felt satisfied with tennis after their match. Akutsu is a smoker and his 33-year-old mother Yuuki had him when she was in her teens. Akutsu develops a rivalry with Echizen Ryoma, but later helps him develop his skills. Despite his earlier satisfaction, Akutsu eventually returns to playing tennis, both out of want to pay back his loss to Ryoma and also grudging but increased desire to play tennis seriously and win. Appearance Akutsu its is notably tall and muscular for a Middle Schooler. He has grayish-silvery hair that is pushed back in a wavy style. His eyes are sharp with smaller pupils than a majority of the characters and they are of an amber color. His skin color is also considerably pale. When he wears his tennis uniform the short sleeves up to reveal his forearms. Personality In striking contrast to his former karate classmate Kawamura, Akutsu is very violent, stirring up trouble wherever he goes. Akutsu plays tennis violently and is widely known around Tokyo as a young bully. Students at both Seigaku and Ginka have been his victims. Despite his bullying, he does have a sense of honor (no matter how skewed it may be) as shown when he rips up the data Dan Taichi had given him on Echizen Ryoma and calling the scouting to be shameful. He is closely followed by Dan, his first-year manager. Dan is the only person who is not scared of Akutsu. He then made a surprise appearance at Kawamura's last tennis match to support his friend, showing the closeness between the two. Despite his arrogant personality, Akutsu is willing to take advice from other people, as seen in his match with Ryoma when he decided to take his coach's advice to change the tempo of his shots. He is also shown to be soft at times, as demonstrated with Dan Taichi and his mother. Dan Taichi's signature headband was given to him by Akutsu. Despite initially ripping up the invitation for the All-Japan Junior Training Camp, he decides to accept it after seeing that his mother went through the trouble of putting the pieces back together. It is revealed in a Pair Puri that Akutsu began to get back into tennis after the nationals as while talking with his close friend Kawamura in a cafe, he has his racket case with him. It is revealed that he was secretly training with Dan. History Akutsu was known and feared amongst Tokyo schools as a bully. However he was close friends with Kawamura due to attending the same Karate class as children. He played tennis to make others lose and never really cared for the sport at all. He never practiced to reach the high level he was at. He was eventually persuaded by Coach Banda of Yamabuki Middle School to actually be a member of the school Tennis club. He annihilated his opponents effortlessly while a member of the club until he met Echizen Ryoma. Tokyo Prefecturals Image3.jpg|Akutsu returning Echizen's ball Image2.jpg|Akutsu serving against Echizen Echizen Image1.jpg|Akutsu about to drop shot against Echizen Image123.jpg|Akutsu returning Echizen's twist serve Akutsu makes his first notable appearance just before the matches between Fudomine and Yamabuki begin. He witnessed an accident that caused several of the Fudomine players to get injured prior to their arrival at the tennis court. After the Fudomine captain Kippei Tachibana realized this, he chose to forfeit the matches and take his teammates to the hospital to receive proper treatment. Yamabuki and Seigaku meet in the Tokyo Prefectural Final. Akutsu plays in Singles 2 against Ryoma Echizen and the two engage in a long fierce match. Echizen eventually wins which results in Akutsu quitting the tennis club claiming he is satisfied with tennis. Nationals Akutsu appears during Kawamura's Singles 2 match in the Semi-Final between Shitenhoji and Seigaku against Ishida Gin. Akutsu arrives to give Kawamura support and encouragement which aids Kawamura. Kawamura is blown to the stands by Ishida Gin's Hadoukyū (波動球), and Akutsu catches him and tells him not to give up. Afterwards Kawamura dramatically wins the match. Prior To U-17 Camp After the Nationals, it is revealed that Akutsu has not actually completely dropped playing tennis like he said he would and actually practices regularly with freshman teammate Dan. On the way from practicing, the two bump into some local thugs who appear to bullying someone. As they get closer they realize the one being bullied is in fact Akaya Kirihara. Akutsu confronts the bullies who after recognizing who Akutsu was, cower away in fear and leave Kirihara alone. Kirihara thanks them afterwards. Shortly after this, Akutsu recieves an invite to the All-Japan Junior Training Camp as he is given the letter by his mother. Akutsu upon recieving it angrily rips it up. However as he gets home later on, he notices it had been pieced back together by his mother. Out of kindness for his mother, he decides to accept the invitation to the camp. U-17 Camp Several players from Yamabuki, Rokkaku.png|Akutsu Jin and fellow Yamabuki regulars at the U-17 Camp Atobe and Akutsu in 2nd Stringer U-17 Camp uniform white.jpg Akutsu in the U-17 Camp locker room.jpg Akutsu annoyed during the Team Shuffle of the U-17 Camp.png|Akutsu after talking Oni about not getting picked. Akutsu is invited to the U-17 Camp along with his Yamabuki teammates Kiyosumi Sengoku, Kentarou Minami and Masami Higashikata, and several other Middle Schoolers. Upon arrival, the middle schoolers gather together. A helicopter suddenly drops tennis balls on the floor. The head coach then announces that all players unable to obtain a ball must leave the camp. All middle schoolers are able to obtain a ball. Several Middle schoolers are challenged for their balls by High Schoolers as some middle schoolers greedily went over the top and took several balls for themselves. However Irie arrives with Oni and Tokugawa and Irie warns all private matches to stop as they are prohibited within the camp. Upon leaving the court, Oni barges into Akutsu, Akutsu unlike the rest of the middle schoolers lacked any fear towards Oni unlike most of the camp and swears at him for doing so causing Kawamura to prevent an argument from brewing. Later on in the day, the Mental Coach arrives and requests all middle schoolers pair up. He then suddenly declares all pairs must play a quick tie-break game where the loser must go home. Akutsu defeats Kawamura in a tiebreaker-format match with a score of 7-1, allowing him to advance to play the high schoolers. He defeats his first high school opponent and it is revealed in Pair Puri Vol.4 that he wins his place in the 8th Court and is joined by fellow Middle Schoolers Fuji, Chinen, Yūshi Oshitari, Kite and David however and some other Middle Schoolers are later put forward for another Shuffle match and wins this and gains his place in the 5th Court along with Tachibana, Shiraishi, Tezuka, Atobe, Gin, Jiro, Eishirō Kite, Kirihara and Krauser. Since all the middle schoolers that won their tie-breaks win their shuffle matches, it results in all members of the 6th Court and 5th Court being Middle Schoolers except for Jūjirō Oni The Gate Keeper who is known for staying in the 5th Court to strengthen the lower courts. Oni decides to request the 5th Court be put forward for a Team Shuffle where the winning team replaces the losing team regardless of the players that lost. Team Shuffle Akutsu requests that Oni selects the players that should play against the 3rd Court. However, Akutsu is somewhat angry after finding out that he was not chosen. Due to Kanata Irie allowing his encounter with Atobe in Singles 1 of the Team Shuffle be a draw for his own amusement, it allows the reserve game to take place. Oni surprisingly takes part in the reserve role despite Akutsu initally wanting to and crushes the 3rd Court's Takei Toshio. Making the 5th Court replace the 3rd Court which results in Akutsu becoming a member of the 3rd Court. U-17 Camp Revolution Later on, Akutsu is present with the rest of the camp when the Top 10 arrive at the main courts and witnesses the shock that No.s 11-19 were defeated and replaced by Middle Schoolers. Akutsu later heads to the Camp's library to return Sengoku's book. However, while there he and Ōmagari Ryūji (the No.6 at this time) have a violent confrontation, due to Ohmagari forcing Akutsu to put the book in the right place, causing Akutsu to completely lose his temper. Genius 10 Challenge When the middle schoolers take on the Top 10, Akutsu is present. Once Akutsu spots Ryoga and Ryoma leaving the courts before Kintaro's match with Oni, he follows them to challenge Ryoma. Akutsu has no interest in becoming an All Japan Representative and only wants to play Ryoma for revenge. When Ryoma declines, Ryoga offers to play him instead. Akutsu throws what appears to be 10 balls at him, but Ryoga uses his Clone Technique to dodge them all. They begin to play with 10 balls, and Akutsu able to hit them all with ease before Ryoga uses Byōdōin Hōō's techique to hit the ball with incredible force. The ball has shockwaves powerful enough to wreck the wall of the building behind Akutsu, and likely would have sent him hurling as Byoudouin managed to do to Tokugawa had Ryoma not stepped in. As it were, Ryoma pushed Akutsu aside to take Ryoga's shot, but is unable to fully return it, and his racket falls out of his hand. Sanada Genichirō then appears to tell Akutsu that he is playing Doubles with him in the next match. Akutsu reluctantly pairs up with Sanada against U-17 Japan representatives No.2 Tanegashima Shūji and No.6 Ōmagari Ryūji. Akutsu/Sanada pair end up getting off to a terrible start against the High Schoolers as Tanegashima effortlessly quells their efforts to the point he decides to stop playing the match and hands his racket over to Ōmagari. U-17 World Cup Group League He plays in singles three for Japan. His opponent being Amadeus. In response to Amadeus' appearance, Byoudouin declares he will play the match instead of Akutsu. But Akutsu grabs Byoudouin by the throat and refuses to hand over his position. After a moment of silence, Byoudouin accepts. Only on one condition though: should Akutsu lose, he will be kicked off the team and has to return to Japan. Akutsu hits a Glowing Shot, but Amadeus returns it with ease as the wall behind him shatters. The two continue to rally and finally Amadeus brings out his own special technique: Akutsu loses track of the ball and is only able to see its shadow. He stops in place and gets hit, the blow being so strong that it causes Akutsu to fly backwards. Amadeus explains that his own style is the "Dark Side" and wonders if Byoudouin has completed his Destruction by now. Akutsu has been knocked out by Amadeus' Dark Side and lies unconscious on the floor. Amadeus grabs him by the ankle and drags him over to the other side of the court during change-over to finish the match; the score is 5-0 in the Swiss' favor. Akutsu has achieved the Eighth Consciousness. Akutsu is overflowing with aura, invoking a variety of reactions from the audience. Amadeus thinks that Akutsu's attacking too much due to his lack of experience and that such impatience leaves him open to counterattacks. But just then, Akutsu scores again - it's 40-30 in favor of the Swiss now. Akutsu continues to attack. Amadeus tries to discern which way Akutsu is going to hit, but to no avail. Akutsu scores again and it's deuce. The spectators are shocked that even a pro can't move a single step against this attack pattern and Akutsu announces that Amadeus will not take a single point from him anymore. Akutsu has taken a game off a pro; 1-5. Even though Amadeus still has a great lead, Peter fears that this one game might have changed the flow of the entire match in Akutsu's favor. Surrounded by the cheers from the audience, Akutsu collapses. Before he hits the ground, however, Byoudouin catches him. Still, Akutsu can no longer continue the match. Tennis Record Official Middle School Tournaments U-17 Camp U-17 World Cup Playing Style and Techniques Akutsu is an Aggressive Baseliner. His play style mainly consists of constant attacking shots to the extent that, until his match against Ryoma, he never bothered to use defensive shots like drop shots and lobs at all against his opponents. Akutsu's abnormally pliable and powerful muscles, jumping ability, and natural body balance collectively allow him to hit powerful attacking shots in any situation from any physical position, even in mid-air. Supplementing Akutsu's style of constant attacking shots is his distinct ability to instantly change the course of his movements and also the ball he's going to hit even during midswing due to his gifted body's quick and explosive reflexes acting in tandem with his keen perceptive vision of clearly seeing and keeping track of his opponent's movements. Akutsu possesses speed great enough that he can seem to have appeared at the net all of a sudden, and can slide on the court surface to quickly reach the ball. Due to the way Akutsu's body moves in playing his tennis, Yukimura states that Akutsu possesses an unconventional but remarkable 'formless style of tennis'. However, that only made him a good player. He was still a person who could be surpassed. After realizing this during the match against Echizen Ryoma, he started to use more defensive techniques, mixing in slow balls such as Lobs and Drop Shots amidst his powerful and fast attacking shots. After his loss, Akutsu went to train in America and returned to the U-17 camp with amazing results, defeating Kawamura by only losing 1 point. Like other top tennis players in the U-17 camp, Akutsu is able to hit 10 balls simultaneously, rallying against Genius 10 member No. 4 Echizen Ryoga during their off-court battle. Akutsu also shown to be able to quickly maneveur his body in mid-air to successfully dodge 10 balls simultaneously hit towards him at a close distance. According to his coach Banda, Data Tennis player Inui Sadaharu, and U-17 camp's strategic coach Yukio Kurobe, Akutsu possesses an exceptional physically gifted body that enables him to athletically excel in any sport he plays and, in tennis, is regarded as a monstrous talent that only comes along once every ten years. Recognition and testaments of Akutsu's talent are that Jūjirō Oni originally selected Akutsu to be his opponent in the Genius 10 Challenge, and Akutsu being the first person to defeat Genius 10 member No. 2 Shūji Tanegashima in the latter's challenge of 'Look Over There' where Akutsu's keen perceptive vision and reflexes triumphed against Tanegashima's own. Most impressively, Akutsu is the first Japanese middle-schooler to have won a game from a professional player, Switzerland's U-17 No.1 and captain, Amadeus. For this, Akutsu was formally acknowledged by both U-17 captains Hōō Byōdōin and Amadeus for possessing world-class tennis prowess. *'Destruction' In his World Cup singles match against Amadeus, Akutsu shown that he can hit and return Destruction shots and even Amadeus's "Dark Side" shots with enough power that saw his Japan U-17 teammates intervening to dispel the shot's shockwaves from blowing away the audience. *'Eighth Consciousness ' Like Atobe, Akutsu also demonstrated the rare ability to move his body after having lost consciousness. Most impressively, Akutsu surpasses Atobe in this regard in that Akutsu manages to continue playing his match while unconscious, and even play long enough to eventually regain consciousness in his match against Amadeus and his harmful "Dark Side" playstyle. So far seen, Akutsu is the only tennis player in the series who can continue playing after having been knocked out. Akutsu later achieved what Hōō Byōdōin called as the "Eighth Consciousness", a state where the player is free from any outside influences which ultimately allow the brain signals to travel to and activate muscles 3 times faster than normal. In this state, Akutsu utilizes his heightened physical prowess to expand upon signature play tactic of misdirection by employing an attack pattern where he prepares to strike the ball from 5 to 10 different ways, deciding which one to follow through on only a split second before hitting the shot. He can maintain play of 5 different attack patterns for up to an hour in a non-stop rally before his legs become stressed enough that his shoes are dyed with blood and eventually sees Akutsu collapse from exhaustion. U-17 Camp Stats He has the potential to succeed in any sport. His athletic body and flexibility are nothing short of ideal. *Speed - 4: His speed is great despite his size. He possesses a very personal form. *Power - 5: He has a strong and flexible body that allows him to fire off powerful shots in a way that cannot be copied, defying all theory. *Stamina - 4: Even though he doesn't exercise regularly, his stamina is quite high. I'm the most concerned about the time he spent away from the tennis court. *Mental - 3: He clearly separates himself from everyone else. He does not feel pressure. However, his weakness is that he gets bored easily. *Technique - 4: Even without rigorous training and research, he can use high level techniques because of his natural talent. Kurobe Memo: We are really fortunate that someone as talented as him has chosen to play tennis. Of course he still needs to aim higher and continue to improve. I hope he does not switch to other sports. Personal Information *Mother's occupation: Waitress (Cafe) *Favorite Food: Chestnut cake *Hobby: When asked, he answers "How's there such a thing?", actually its speed racing *Favorite Subject: Physical Education *Favorite Color: Silver *Thing he likes: Mont Blanc *Things he is bad at: There's no way there is such a thing. *Things he is good at other than tennis: Good memory. *What he wants the most right now: New motocycle *Preferred type: Girls who look good with lipstick *Additional Notes: Every day a mail comes from his mother and he ignores it... Is what you would think, he always replies with a long answer. Quotes *''“Oi, who do you think you’re trying to order around?”'' (“Oi, omae, dare ni sashizu shiten no?”) *''“Don’t order me around.”'' (“Ore ni sashizu suru jan ne.”) *''“Tch, isn’t this the best?”'' (“Tch, saiko ja nei no?”) *''“Don’t be in a rush. Make it to the prefectural finals. I’m Yamabuki’s Third-Year, Akutsu.”'' (“Asen na yo. Totaikai kesshou made agate koi. Ore wa Yamabuki-chuu sannen, Akutsu da.”) *(Towards Kawamura) “Don’t order me around like that. Since we know each other, I’ll leave you alone this time.” (“Ichi ichi ore ni sashizu sun na. Mukashi no yoshimi de konkai dakea minogashite yaru.”) *''“Hahahahaha!”'' *''“I’ll play with you as I promised.”'' (“Yakusoku dori ason de yaro.”) *(After being hit with Drive A) “You can’t run away anymore, brat.” (“Mou nigeran ne ze, kozou.”) *''“Is that all you got, brat?”'' (“Sono tei to ka, kozou?”) *(Against Echizen Ryoma) “That brat’s really something. To provoke me, then successfully outwit me…” (“Taishita kozou daze. Ore wo chohatsu shite, manma todashi nuki to wa…”) *''“Don't make me laugh!”'' (“Warau wa sennu nayo!”) *''"It's no use, no use!" ("Muda, muda!") **'NOTE:' The second "Muda" is used to emphasize his statement. *"Other way, brat!"'' ("Gyaku da, kozou!") *''“I’ll crush you.”'' (“Butsubusu”) *''“I told you it’s useless!” (“Muda da to itei yo na!”) *“Just who am I? I’m Akutsu Jin! There has never been anyone who could beat me. So far, no matter who stood in my way before, I have knocked them all down. Before…and…from now on!” ''(“Ore wa dare da? Ore wa Akutsu Jin dazo! Dare mo ore ni wa katte kone. Ima made tonna yaron ga tachi fusa ga roto, tataki no meshi teki da. Ima made mo…soshite…kore kara mon da!”) Trivia Character Trivia *He is the oldest middle schooler to be shown. *As a pre-teen, he had a bob for his hairstyle. As an older teen, he has spiky hair. Other Trivia *Due to American censorship, in the anime Akutsu's underage smoking was replaced with a toothpick. Gallery Jin blushing.png|Jin blushing in NPoT OVA 7 Jin smiling.png|Jin smiling in NPoT OVA 7 Akutsu at home.png Akutsu in his house.png Akutsu tearing up his U-17 Camp invitation.png|Akutsu tears up his U-17 Camp invitation Akutsu's apartment complex.png|Akutsu's apartment complex Akutsu in action.jpg Akutsu and Dan after training.jpg Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Yamabuki Tennis Club Member Category:U-17 Camp Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:Aggressive Baseliner Category:Right-Handed Category:Tokyo Players Category:Kanto Players Category:2nd Stringers Category:World Cup Participants Category:Group League Participants Category:April Births Category:B Blood Types Category:Aries